


Torn

by Salmon_I



Series: To the Moon and Back [5]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Arguing, Conspiracy Theories, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 21:58:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17968802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salmon_I/pseuds/Salmon_I
Summary: “Isobel does social media.  I prefer science journals.”“Did you understand my study?”“Bio was never my favorite science, but enough.”“So with no college education you can understand the basic principles of the study I spent years on.  But instead of doing something useful with all that brain power you made yourself an accessory to multiple murders.  Brilliant life choices!”





	Torn

Contrary to popular belief, Michael wasn't often a day drinker. It was easy to occupy his mind during the day. Either with his job or with his desperate attempts to unlock the secret of interstellar transport. To somehow reverse engineer their spaceship with nothing but two pieces of metal, a few chemical traces and everything he'd self taught himself about engineering. Second hand store book sections were often filled with outdated course books from colleges, science journals, and variously technological magazines. Michael had never needed school to make him learn - he loved learning. He loved when the pieces to the puzzle he'd been struggling to understand finally came together. When a simple equation or a sequence clarified everything.

He hated it just as much, because it made his mind spin faster - forever seeking answers to things he still had no solutions for. And that was just his mind. The left hand side of his messed up brain. There was no equation for emotions. No chemical or mathematical sequence to understand the disaster that was the heart, human or alien, apparently. The chaos inside of him was never quiet anymore.

No, Michael usually saved his drinking for nights. For when there was no job to keep his mind occupied and his head and hand hurt from hours of sketching and calculating and picking out all the flaws in his latest failed designs. Acetone and liquor numbed the pain, physical and emotional. It wasn't true quiet, though. Not like he'd once known when he played music.

Not like he'd known with Alex, before everything changed. Before Jesse Manes’ and the death of Rosa. Not the few times with Alex after that night when they'd meet in secret. Even as he pulled away because watching over Isobel had to take priority. There had been a handful of moments he felt it when Alex had walked right back into his life, ten years later, and pulled him right back into his arms before walking right back out again.

He'd known it would happen, but he'd welcomed it even then. Moments. Wasn’t that what Max had called them on that long ago day? One of those moments worth fighting for? He'd spent literal days after Alex gave him his brother's guitar with a whirlwind of thoughts that went something like - Alex was trying to kiss me. Do I want to kiss Alex? What does it mean if I kinda do want to kiss Alex? Am I being a pathetic loser crushing on a guy just because he's the first human to be genuinely kind to me? Holy shit, I have a crush on Alex. Why didn't I just let Alex kiss me?

Then Max had said he was asking Liz out, given a Seize the Day speech, and run off with her someplace. He'd decided to follow his example and throw caution to the wind and gone right to Alex. He was pretty sure his seventeen years old self was actually planning to say something. Something about how Alex could change his entropy, too, and how he hadn't been able to get the fact they'd almost kissed out of his mind. Then Alex was in front of him and he'd thought - fuck it - and kissed him. As in all times he'd actively sought happiness, that moment had ended in disaster.

He'd tried to play guitar exactly one time after his hand healed and Alex was gone. His mangled fingers had fumbled the chords, messing with the notes and ruining the song he was trying to play. He'd known, with practice, he could learn to compensate for it - the way he had when fixing cars or any other movement. There'd been no desire to try, though. No point anymore, really. A part of him felt he deserved the chaos.

Because hadn't it been his selfishness that led to each increasing disaster? He'd been the one who dragged them all to the desert the night Isobel had been attacked and Max had been forced to kill to protect them. He'd thrown himself at Alex, ignoring his hints of his home life, and that had led to the confrontation with Jesse Manes. He'd ignored Max's warnings about Isobel's behaviour, and encouraged Max to do the same - leaving Isobel alone when they should have been watching over her.

Now everything was hanging in the balance, and was it really surprising that his selfishness had put them at risk again? Kissing Alex at the reunion - falling back into bed with him as though they were still seventeen and had the world at their feet. But they weren't and Alex was a soldier now. Jesse Manes’ soldier. He'd chosen the man who attacked him and broke Michael's hand when he tried to intervene over anything Michael had to offer him. Then and now. Except now Alex was asking questions, poking into his business right when Liz had uncovered the truth. The disdain in Alex's eyes when he'd hustled some copper would be nothing compared to the look he'd give him if he discovered he was an accessory in four murders. He wasn't sure he would survive that look.

He also wasn't sure he had the strength to resist him if he did show up at his door again. Certainly not as casually as he'd declared he would in front of Max and Isobel. He'd just send him away again. Right. As if sending Alex away had ever been easy.

Yah, today was a day drinking kind of day for sure.

He didn't recognize the car that pulled into the junkyard, and he had half a mind to say they were closed for business. Then Liz Ortecho was leaping out of the vehicle, and he had a second to think about how she must have bought a new one since her old one had gotten blown up by Wyatt Long, before she was standing in front of him. “Did you steal the tapes?” She demanded.

Michael literally had no idea what she was on about, and he really didn't feel like talking to Liz Ortecho right now. She was Max's problem - not his. Well, she really was all their problems but he was pretty sure the only conversation they'd had since she returned was his attempt to threaten her life. Despite the fact he was the only one of the three who had never actually killed anyone. Irony at its finest. “What tapes?” He didn't bother to stand from his chair.

“Grant Green’s tapes. Kyle told me that Noah told him they were stolen.”

Why was Noah talking to Kyle and what did the late Grant Green have anything to do with it? Despite the acetone he'd consumed, his head threatened to throb in sheer confusion. “Why would I steal Green's fake alien shit?”

“Don't play dumb, okay? You think I don't remember who beat me in every AP class we shared? This whole drunk cowboy thing is bullshit. So just tell me, did you steal the electronics from the storage unit or not?”

Michael frowned, finally sitting up and giving her his full attention. The whole town had heard the story of how Wyatt had killed Grant for getting in the way while attempting to murder Liz. It didn't make any sense because Wyatt had always been all talk - but what had made sense in the last month? Liz's desperate question had him connecting dots, though. Liz had known things - had been digging into her sister's death. Where did Grant Green fit into that? “What were on those tapes?”

“...you don't have them.” Liz stepped back, apparently surprised.

“What were on those damn tapes?” He growled out, standing up. He didn't have time to play nice. Not if she'd been so worked up over it she'd come to him to demand answers.

“Grant Green was in the desert the night Isobel murdered my sister. He had footage of the bodies floating out of the cave.”

Michael could feel himself shaking. He turned away from Liz, letting the power in him send out its mini wave of destruction - knocking over a second chair and a variety of other junk he really wasn't worried about right then. “What the hell? You didn't think to lead with that? Did you tell Max that?”

Liz tore her eyes from the mess he'd made, and it occurred to him she'd only seen the most basic use of his powers before. “I don't want anything to do with Max - with any of you. But I had to know if you took them or not.”

“We needed to know about this.”

“Why? So you could cover it up too?”

“Wow, your empathy is really impressive. Do you practice being a sociopath who wants to see people dissected for kicks or does it just come naturally?”

“Isobel murdered Rosa and two other girls and you made my sister your scapegoat.”

“We set up a fake car crash whose headline should have read “Three teenage girls die in tragic accident” - this town scapegoated your sister, not us.”

“Oh, is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?” Liz challenged.

Michael scoffed, grabbing up his drink again. “And what do you think you would have done? Hm? If it had been your sister in the desert surrounded by three bodies? Called the cops? Cuz we both know you wouldn't have.”

“My sister wasn't a murderer.”

Michael out right laughed at her. “Your sister was a dealer. You don't know whether that's true or not.”

“Shut up.”

“Rosa wasn't a saint and dying didn't make her one.”

“Don’t you talk about her like that!” Liz shoved him, but he stepped right back forward again.

“You can't tell me Rosa didn't give Iz drugs that made her powers go on the fritz. You don't know because none of us do.”

“Rosa wasn't doing that anymore - she was better.” Liz argued.

“Even if that were true, and I doubt you'd really know if it were or not, addicts have these things called relapses. Look it up.”

“My mother and sister were both addicts, I don't need you to explain terms to me.”

“Then stop acting like you do.”

“I'm also the one with the medical degree, I think I know more about chemical addiction and what it does to the human body than you do.”

“Yah, congrats on your dead tree. I'm sure it does you a lot of good now that you're back to working the job you had at seventeen because your study was shut down due to lack of funding and ethical complaints.”

Liz stared. “You read up on my study?”

“We told you we looked up info at the diner the first night.”

“You mentioned my ex-fiance's Facebook. Not my work.”

“Isobel does social media. I prefer science journals.”

“Did you understand my study?”

“Bio was never my favorite science, but enough.”

“So with no college education you can understand the basic principles of the study I spent years on. But instead of doing something useful with all that brain power you made yourself an accessory to multiple murders. Brilliant life choices!”

“I’ll never be sorry for protecting my family.” It had been a long time since he'd last said those words. Saying them now felt like both a relief and a poison.

“Then you should understand why I can't forgive any of you for what you did to mine.”

Michael drained the last of his drink, before setting the cup down. “I don't need your forgiveness. I need to know what you're planning to do now that you know everything.”

“If I could tell anyone the truth without sounding crazy, I would. I can't. I can be prepared, though. I won't let anyone else die for your secret. So keep an eye on your so called family.”

Michael waited until she walked to her car and reached for the handle to lock it with his telekinesis..“If you hurt Max or Isobel, I'll kill you.”

“Max told me the whole story. You've never killed anyone.”

“Well, I guess it's my turn then...”

Liz seemed to study him for a moment, but then shook her head. “No, I don't you think you have it in you.”

“You're willing to stake your life on that?”

“Keep yourselves in check and maybe we'll never have to know.” Liz challenged.

A part of him wanted to damage her car just to piss her off again. He held himself back while she drove away. With the knowledge of what had been on Grant Green's tapes, though, his hopes of getting drunk were dashed. He found himself wondering when the last time he'd actually dialed Max's number even was as the phone rang in his ear.

“Michael, what's wrong?” Max picked up after the first ring.

“We have a problem.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I was partway into a part from Kyle's POV, but after the latest episode this was the piece I had to write. That episode was so much more intense than I expected. Ophiuchus’ obsession with Rosa wasn't quite the relationship I was hoping for, but it was both well written and so well acted. I didn't think they actually witnessed Isobel killing anyone - I thought they found her there unconscious - so that was a shock. And I suspected Michael's hand involved Alex and his relationship then but - damn. Can someone please write me some fluff? I seriously need some after all that.
> 
> I'm not sure right now whether Ophiuchus is an alternate personality of Isobel's due to trauma, or if she somehow psychically absorbed the personality of the dead guy. Which means she also might have a version of Rosa, Jazmin and Kate inside her head. (Which might explain why she woke up near the Long Farm in Don't Speak) Or if Ophiuchus is a separate entity altogether that controlled Isobel. (Which would explain Wyatt killing Green if he was also being controlled.) They did mention a Tess in 1x06, which could have been a simple nod to the old series, or a hint. There's so many possibilities right now.
> 
> My series isn't quite canon compliant anymore cuz I did get a few things wrong. I guessed that the relationships were short because in the first episode in one of Liz's flashbacks Rosa mentioned it was two weeks before graduation and Liz and Max weren't together yet. I just expected a week, maybe the two weeks. Not one day. Also, since Liz knew about Michael's hand being broken I thought he hurt it before that night, not on that night. (How was she certain his hand was hurt on that night, tbh?). We haven't seen how things ended between Alex and Michael yet, but I know how I had it end isn't going to be correct with how things played out. I will definitely be using things that happen and are revealed from beyond episode 1x05, but my series won't be fully canon compliant past that point.


End file.
